Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE

Belly lifts

From: Judy

Jessica, could you please explain the belly lift exercises to help dressage horses?

Hi Judy! Belly lifts will help all horses -- they're like sit-ups and abdominal "crunches" for humans, useful for all individuals no matter what their preferred sports.

Belly lifts work directly on the horse's stomach and abdominal muscles, and, like abdominal exercises for humans, they have the direct effect of strengthening the abdominals, and the indirect but perhaps even more important effect of helping the horse strengthen and use its back effectively.

All of us want our horses to be able to engage their hind legs, step under, and use their belly muscles to lift their backs. Not all horses do this -- not all horses even know that they CAN do this. By helping your horse with belly lifts, you can both help it lift its back, and make it more able to lift its back on its own, under saddle.

Belly lifts are simple and involve sensitivity, but no strength on the part of the handler. Your goal is not to "lift" the horse's belly yourself, but to stimulate the horse to lift his own belly.

Standing next to your horse, facing his side, reach under his belly and touch his "midline" lightly. I've found that most horses seem to respond best to the use of two hands, one placed on either side of the girth (or the area where the girth would be). Some horses may respond better to pressure a little farther back. With fingertips uppermost, apply a slight upward pressure to the horse's belly. Some horses will respond to just a light touch, almost a tickle -- others require a little more pressure or gentle movements of the fingers. You'll feel the horse's belly tense (and lft), and if you are looking at the top of the horse's back, you'll see it rise.

You can safely do these exercises at any time -- unlike many other exercises, these do not require that the horse be warmed up first. In fact, you can easily get in the habit doing belly lifts when you groom the horse, when you tack up, before you mount, after you dismount, when you clean the stall, when you give the horse a bath, before longeing, after longeing -- any time at all!

Jessica

Materials from Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE, The Newsletter of Holistic Horsemanship® may be distributed and copied for personal, non-commercial use provided that all authorship and copyright information, including this notice, is retained. Materials may not be republished in any form without express permission of the author.

Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE is a free, subscriber-supported electronic Q&A email newsletter which deals with all aspects of horses, their management, riding, and training. For more information, please visit www.horse-sense.org

Please visit Jessica Jahiel: Holistic Horsemanship® [www.jessicajahiel.com] for more information on Jessica Jahiel's clinics, video lessons, phone consultations, books, articles, columns, and expert witness and litigation consultant services.